Need formula to prepend https:// to URLs (no code module, new Make parser)

How To
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1

Hi all,

I’m building a scenario where I need to clean up website URLs coming from Airtable before sending them to Apify.

All I want to do is:

  • If the URL starts with http:// or https://, leave it as is.

  • Otherwise, prepend https://.

However, my Make environment doesn’t recognize functions like or(), equals(), or match(), and throws errors like:

Function 'if' finished with error! Function 'or' not found!

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

  • Inline conditional using [0:7] slicing → works but outputs falsefalse…

  • Tried contains() and like() → “function not found”

  • Tried multiple parentheses and if() nesting — some success, but inconsistent between modules.

Has anyone found a simple working formula for the new expression parser in 2025 that can check if a string starts with ‘http’ and prepend ‘https://’ otherwise?

If it helps:

  • My source is Airtable module #4 → field name Website URL.

  • Using a Tools > Set Variable module to set clean_url.

Thanks!
Peter – AI Centre (Australia)

3

Hi @Peter_Brandstater,

Welcome to the community! Did you ask an LLM to help you out? Because the functions you share do not exist in Make, that is why they are not recognized.

What you can do is use the contains() function nested in an if() function, like this:

Cheers,
Henk